1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of molecular medicine and cancer biology and, more specifically, to collagen-binding molecules that selectively home to tumor vasculature.
2. Background Information
A major hurdle to advances in treating cancer is the relative lack of agents that can selectively target the cancer while sparing normal tissue. For example, radiation therapy and surgery, which generally are localized treatments, can cause substantial damage to normal tissue in the treatment field, resulting in scarring and loss of normal tissue. Chemotherapy, in comparison, which generally is administered systemically, can cause substantial damage to organs such as the bone marrow, mucosae, skin and small intestine, which undergo rapid cell turnover and continuous cell division. As a result, undesirable side effects such as nausea, loss of hair and drop in blood cell count often occur when a cancer patient is treated intravenously with a chemotherapeutic drug. Such undesirable side effects can limit the amount of a drug that can be safely administered, thereby hampering survival rate and impacting the quality of patient life.
Thus, there is a need for new therapeutic strategies for selectively targeting tumors and reducing the side effects associated with systemic therapy. The present invention satisfies this need by providing molecules that selectively home to tumor vasculature and which are suitable for selectively targeting chemotherapeutic drugs, gene therapy vectors or other agents to the tumor vasculature. Related advantages also are provided.